New dimension of logistics innovations development in agricultural enterprises in Slovakia

Abstract

The research article's primary aim was to provide a comprehensive and systematic view of a new dimension of logistics in the form of logistics innovations in agricultural enterprises in Slovakia. The intention thereof was to define and then analyse selected logistics innovations in agricultural enterprises. The research object was formed by 95 agricultural enterprises in Slovakia. A questionnaire was used as the research instrument. MS Excel and IBM SPSS Statistics 20 were used to process the data in the questionnaire. The univariate descriptive statistics and multivariate descriptive statistics were used to interpret the data. The research results were tested and evaluated by means of Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Medium-sized agricultural enterprises in Slovakia represented the largest segment (68%) of the study. The agricultural enterprises mostly understand the use of smart technologies as an innovation in logistics (mean = 4.43). The results of the research showed that the analysed agricultural enterprises intend to innovate mainly the production logistics (mean = 3.20). Out of the logistics processes, the agricultural enterprises want to innovate mostly the inventory management (mean = 4.55). Lean logistics is the most frequently implemented logistics innovation in agricultural enterprises (mean = 3.64). The hypothesis testing has proven that there is a statistically significant relationship between the utilisation of lean logistics and production logistics innovation. In addition, it was proven that there is a statistically significant relationship between the utilisation of radio frequency identification (RFID) and the logistics process innovation – inventory management.